CLCL Clipboard

excellent
key review info
application features
  • All clipboard formats are supported.
  • (4 more, see all...)

I'm going to talk about a small application that I just run into. It's not much of a use for novice PC users, but some of you who are using copy/paste often could really need something like this. If you use copy/paste very often, then you must get such a clipboard manager. I say MUST because I know it will really make your job easier.

Now, about the program, I don't think it can get simpler than this. You are only one right-click away from the clipboard history and another left-click to move to the clipboard the text or image you need to paste. If you don't want the history to cover all your desktop you can easily change this from the options window. In the menu you have the template directory, the viewer and the options window. The viewer is your salvation if you forget what text you need to paste. It's a simple window, split in half, in the left part you have the list with the copied texts (History) and in the right part is displayed the selected item. Have a picture that's bigger or smaller than the viewer? Right click on the image and stretch it to fit the viewer.

At this point I got curious about the competition. I took one of the best and most popular clipboards we have available for download and, 101 Clips Pro. Now, this is what I call not-that-simple-to-use. I don't say that this application is not good, but compared to CLCL, it's much more complicated.

The first advantage of CLCL I saw was the number of items you can store in the history. 101 Clips Pro can store 300.000 items. That's a lot, but when you open the option window from CLCL in the history tab, the first panel you'll see is the Maximum number of items you want to store. It goes up to one million items. The disadvantage CLCL has is that history can't be organized like in 101 Clips Pro where you'll find 100 libraries, each library containing 100 groups, each group storing 30 clips.

This application will be easier to use every time you use it. CLCL has few features, but very useful ones. First of all, it supports all clipboard formats (text, bitmap, file), the item is pasted automatically and you have a tool tip displayed on a menu. And this is not all. In the Action tab from the Options window you'll find the possibility of adding and editing actions in the application. You can set the hotkeys for every action.

The clipboard can filter out the copied items. You can add and edit filters by setting actions such as add/don't add to history, ignore format, limit size or simply do not save the copied items. Another nice feature CLCL has is the Template directory, feature that can easily compete with the good organization of items that 101 Clips Pro has. Here you can organize items stored in the history, just like you do with your personal files. The "New Folder" options says it all. Create a folder, name it, drag and drop the items to the folder you want and there you have the best organization ever.

Evaluating the competition, I was trying to find some similar features. 101 Clips Pro has a feature of customizing actions, too. There are 4 buttons available and you can set a name for them from the Options window, but the programs launched by them are the applications associated by Windows with the file type you enter. For example, if you enter the "txt" extension then Notepad will be launched; if you enter the "doc" extension then WordPad/Word will be launched and so on. But if you enter an "exe" extension, or any extension that Windows doesn't have a program associated with, then the button will do nothing.

A feature 101 Clips Pro has and CLCL doesn't is a graphic editor where you have available all options that Paint has and you can edit any picture. I don't know how useful this is, since you can find standalone graphic editors far more advanced than this.

After reviewing the features of both programs, the conclusion is that CLCL has a less complicated interface, bigger capacity of storing items in history, an item filter, user defined actions and tools and you can set hot keys to every action tool and item in the history. Both applications have a very good organization and display method for the items. On the other side, 101 Clips Pro has a graphic editor and a help display box that shows what every option does. Looks like the score is CLCL - 5, 101 Clips Pro - 2.

The Good CLCL is simple to use and has great features that can outrun most clipboard managers. Best of all, it's FREE OF CHARGE!!!

The Bad Haven't seen anything wrong with it, except the fact that it doesn't have a help file.

The Truth As I was saying, if you use copy/paste a lot, CLCL is a very good choice. It will take you less than 10 minutes to be convinced. My rate for this 300 KB application is EXCELENT counting the fact that 101 Clips Pro, one of the most downloaded clipboards we have cannot be a match for CLC and is shareware.

Check out some screenshots below:

Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
Review image
user interface 4
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
NEXT REVIEW: PerfectDisk